Newborns and sleep routines

Help encourage your baby to develop good sleep habits from early on by getting them into a consistent bedtime routine at an early age.

This content is sponsored by Asda Little Angels, to provide supportive information for you and your baby.

How much sleep does my baby need?

Newborn babies sleep a lot, most of the day and night, in fact. This is normal and your newborn could sleep for up to 18 hours1 over the course of a 24-hour period in their first few weeks, although it’s likely that this will be broken up into short bursts of three or four hours.

However, all babies are different and yours will have their own pattern of waking and sleeping which is likely to be different to other babies you know.

Check out our guide to how much sleep your baby needs at different stages of their childhood to get an idea of how the coming months and years might progress.

It all means that for the first few weeks and months, you are likely to have plenty of sleepless nights and you are bound to be tired.

Hang in there though, it does get better with time. Remember, each baby is different and one will have different sleeps habits to another – it can be easy to doubt yourself but it doesn’t make you a bad parent if you’re struggling with getting your baby to sleep.

Understanding your baby’s sleep cycle

As touched on above, your little one will probably sleep for shorter spells during the day and longer periods at night, although they’ll still wake up to feed during the night.

While it’s not unheard of for a baby of eight weeks to sleep throughout the night, it’s more likely that your nights will be interrupted for a few months.

However, if your baby does sleep through the night then, while it’s not a cause for concern, they are not waking to feed so it’s important that you keep an open dialogue with your health visitor to ensure they are getting enough feeds and gaining enough weight.

The key to getting your baby to sleep throughout the night is to start getting into a routine from the beginning3…

How do I know when my baby is tired?

For the first couple of months your baby will only be able to stay awake for a couple of hours at a time, so when this timeframe approaches you should encourage or help them to sleep by having some quiet time and putting them down.

Don’t leave it much longer than that as they will become overtired and then will be unable to sleep. All parents know how stressful and troublesome it can be to get an overtired baby to sleep4.

To avoid this kind of stress, start looking for signs that your baby is sleepy. This might include keeping a baby sleep tracker to spot patterns, but you should also trust your own instincts as a parent and look out for some of these common signs your little one is ready to go to sleep…

They rub their eyes

They touch their ears

They seem irritable and whine or cry

They yawn and stretch a lot

They stare blankly into space and become quiet and still

It seems hard to get their attention and they turn away when you try to engage with them

You’ll soon spot what your baby’s tired signs are, and they may be all or just some of the above. Remember that mum knows best so trust your instincts. You’ll both soon settle into a rhythm.

Creating a baby bedtime routine

Establishing a consistent baby bedtime routine gives you the best possible chance of helping your baby develop good sleeping habits in the long term.

You can do this at any stage, but the earlier the better to help prevent sleeping problems later on5.

Establishing a routine is simple; all you’re doing is repeating the same relaxing, soothing process every night so that they become comfortable with what’s happening and are ready to go to bed.

You can develop your own newborn bedtime routine, but the following are common things to include6…

Giving your baby a bath - ensuring you supervise your little one at all times

Changing into their night clothes and fresh nappy

Cleaning their teeth (or gums!)

Putting them in bed

Reading or singing a lullaby to them

Dimming the lights and kissing them goodnight

You might even find that the routine is relaxing for you, and it’s certainly a nice way of spending time and bonding with your baby.

Get into routines for daytime and night-time

Your baby won’t know that night-time is different to daytime, so good idea to try and teach them this from an early age. They will eventually learn that day-time is for being active and awake, and that night-time is for being peaceful and sleeping.

Here are a few little things you can try to help you…

Daytime

During the day, change your baby’s clothes when they wake up so they start to understand that it’s the start of a new day. Play together as much as possible and make this an activity they understand happens during the day.

Make your daytime feeds fun and social so sing or talk to your baby while you feed them. This helps your little angel understand that daytime is an ‘active’ time. Add to this understanding by keeping your house and his room light and bright – let the sun in!

Your baby will soon understand that daytime is an active time when they get used to hearing everyday noises like the television, radio, dishwasher and maybe even some traffic outside.

Night-time

In the evening, think about turning down the noise and the light, so drop your voice and switch off TVs, radio and anything else that makes any too much noise, talk to your baby in a softer, lower voice so they learn to switch off and understand that night-time is a quiet time4.

You can then begin your baby bedtime routine which we mentioned above to help them relax and get off to sleep.

Where should my baby sleep?

Your baby should always sleep in the same room as you for the first six months, whether this is day or night.

Aside from a safety point of view, you might find that your baby will only sleep while you’re standing by their cot, or even only when they are in your arms7.

However, what you don’t want is for your child to continue to rely on you being present for them to fall asleep, so it’s important that over time they learn to fall aseep in isolation without you being present.